


Minutes of The Trial of Moth Priest Harius Seldonius, 3E 429

by ktyxdovahkiin



Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elder Scrolls Online, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Cult of the Ancestor Moths, Elder Council - Freeform, Elder Scrolls Lore, Empire, Prophecy, Trials, Uriel Septim - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:07:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28238205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ktyxdovahkiin/pseuds/ktyxdovahkiin
Summary: A little tribute to Asimov's Foundation novels. Set in the time of Oblivion.What if the Moth Priests are far more than they seem to be? What if they are all that holds back the dreaded words: "The Future Refused to Change..."?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	Minutes of The Trial of Moth Priest Harius Seldonius, 3E 429

**Imperial City, White-Gold Tower, Elder Council Chamber**

**In attendance:**

High Chancellor Ocato, presiding   
Councilor Livinicus   
Councilor Jar-eel   
Councilor Avianus   
Councilor Muscum   
Advisor Jean-Luc Motierre   
Councilor Velaryon   
Councilor Garog gra-Shurag  
Councilor Jemane   
Councilor Ogmund Ironfist   
Councilor Marravar’daro   
Councilor Vandacia   
Councilor Inga Frost-heart   
Councilor Ithilwen of Valenwood   
High Prelate Garol Evicus  
Grand Magistrate Varyn Mordren, functioning as Council Prosecutor   
Ambassador-in-Training Elenwen of the Aldmeri Dominion   
Ambassador Lazgar gra-Magura of Orsinium   
General Kastav of the 3rd Legion   
General Livia Augusta of the 5th Legion   
Legate Titus of the Palace Guard 

**Absent:**

Emperor Uriel Septim VII   
Crown Prince Geldall Septim   
Prince Enman Septim   
Prince Ebel Septim 

Council Prosecutor: Let us see, Scrollkeeper Seldonius. How many years has it been since you lost your sight? 

Harius Seldonius: Fifty. 

CP: Including this year? 

HS: This year would be my fifty-first of sightlessness. 

CP: As many as that! And how old are you this year? 

HS: I shall be seventy-one years of age. 

CP: Ah, so you were born in the reign of… Pelagius IV, is that correct? 

HS: That is so. 

CP: You were fortunate, then, to have grown up during a relatively peaceful time. And so you joined the Cult of the Ancestor Moths when you were…? 

HS: When I was a young man of seventeen, as a lay brother. 

CP: Assist me, Scrollkeeper. Will you be so kind as to tell the court under what circumstances you laid eyes on your first Elder Scroll and thereby claimed the pension of a Moth Priest? 

HS: I was stationed at the Northern Temple, but I accompanied my master at the time, Prelate Sintav, as he made the journey to the Imperial Library. While I was in the Library retrieving a Scroll for him, I heard the hymnal humming of the Ancestor Moths, and I was overcome by the sacred chorus. I unfurled the Scroll and looked upon its contents. 

CP: Were you punished for this infraction? 

HS: I was disciplined according to the wishes of my master, the Prelate. 

CP: Who then proceeded to induct you into the Cult? 

HS: I was subsequently inducted into the Cult as a full Priest, yes. 

CP: Is this typical, would you say, that the Cult of the Ancestor Moths is in the habit of dispensing reward to the contumacious and the insubordinate? That wrongdoing in the Cult is habitually treated as meritorious behavior? 

HS: I make no claim with regard to the postulated chain of causality between my transgression and my membership in the Cult. I only relate events in chronological sequence, as you have required me to do so with your line of questioning. I would like to remind the members of the august Elder Council who are present here today that as far as chains of causality are concerned, we have far greater and graver matters to speak of at this hearing. 

_[High Chancellor Ocato bangs his gavel with great force until the uproar subsides and its echoes die away in the vaulted dome above.]_

CP: I thank you, esteemed members of the Council, and I thank you, High Chancellor. Harius Seldonius, consider yourself reminded that this is a _trial_ _,_ not a mere hearing. I invite you to greater cognizance of your current precarity. Now, would you be so kind as to indulge my line of questioning further – have you ever risen above being a Scrollkeeper to any sort of position carrying greater responsibility? Have you ever been considered for Prelate, for instance? Lector? Chief Scrivener, perhaps? Or even just Archivist? Not even Senior Scrollkeeper?

HS: I have not. 

CP: You have remained a Scrollkeeper for… fifty years, have you not? 

HS: I have. 

CP: Intriguing. Is this customary, that a respected member of the priesthood would rise in station not at all over the course of a long career? Is it strange at all that you have remained a mere Scrollkeeper, Seldonius? 

HS: I would hardly say that there is anything “mere” about any of my brothers or sisters in the Cult. 

CP: I was speaking of you. 

HS: I would not presume to evaluate myself and my life, or pass comment about the supposed lowliness of my station.

CP: And yet, that is precisely what we are here to do. You have caused quite the upheaval, Scrollkeeper Seldonius. You and your followers have upset the established order in a manner we may deem unprecedented, by dint of the mere fact that you are _Moth Priests_ _._ How many do they number, your followers? 

HS: They are not my followers. They are my friends, my fellow Priests and Priestesses. 

CP: A mere quibble. They follow you, without question. Even now, some of them are gathering in unlawful assembly outside the very doors of the Tower, clamoring for your release; others whom we have remanded have shown us nothing but intransigence, demanding proof of your well-being and refusing to cooperate with duly constituted authority. I say, _Scrollkeeper_ Seldonius, that they have effectively splintered from the Cult of the Ancestor Moths, and under your direction they are fomenting dissent, sedition and _outright insurrection!_

HS: Are these the charges appertaining to me, then? Am I to understand that I am being tried as a rebel? 

CP: How do you plead? 

HS: Emphatically not guilty. 

CP: Hardly surprising. We shall arrive at the truth of matters soon enough. Would you repeat for the members of the Elder Council gathered here, Scrollkeeper, your assertions concerning the future of the Empire? 

HS: I have said, and I say again, that the Empire will lie in ruins within the next hundred years, and that the line of the Septim Dynasty will end within the next five. 

CP: You do not consider your statement a disloyal one? 

HS: No, Magistrate. The truths of the Elder Scrolls lie far beyond loyalty and disloyalty. 

CP: You are sure that your statements represent the truth of the Elder Scrolls? 

HS: I am.   
  
CP: On what basis?

HS: On the basis of my reading, and the humming of the ever-present Moths I wear about my person. 

CP: Can you prove that your reading is valid? 

HS: I can prove it only to another Moth Priest. 

CP: _(smiling)_ Your claim then is that the truth you have read in the Elder Scrolls is of so esoteric a nature that it is beyond the understanding of plain people. Is it not possible for you to explicate or elaborate, to expound or elucidate? It seems to me that if the truth were as obvious as you claim it is, it would be more readily perceptible and much less mysterious, not to mention much less shockingly implausible. 

HS: It presents no difficulties to some minds. The existence of magicka, for example, is known to all, and every single person on the face of Nirn is understood to possess a reservoir of magical energy, yet there are people present who would find it impossible to light a fire with their fingers or chill their drinks with frost from their palms. And these are clearly people of high ability and intelligence. I doubt if some of the Councilors… 

_[High Chancellor Ocato has to raise his voice, in addition to banging his gavel repeatedly, until some semblance of order is restored.]_

CP: _(flushing)_ We are not here for a lecture on magicka, Scrollkeeper, and certainly not from the likes of _you._ Let us assume you have made your point. Let me suggest to you that your wild predictions of disaster might be intended to destroy public confidence in the Elder Council, and by extension the entire edifice of the Imperial government, for purposes of your own! 

HS: That is not so. 

CP: Let me suggest that you intend to claim that the end of the Septim Dynasty is imminent, and that immediately afterwards there will commence a period of chaos and unrest of various types. 

HS: That is correct. 

CP: And that by the mere prediction thereof, you hope to bring it about, and have a cohort of conniving co-conspirators ready to rouse the rabble and seize the reins of power. 

HS: In the first place, that is not so. And if it were, then how is it that a stable and prosperous polity could be so easily undone by a group of Moth Priests and affiliated scholars? My friends and I number perhaps a few dozen, and none of us have any serious training in arms, nor do we possess any marked propensity for skillful administration. 

CP: Are you acting as an agent for another? 

HS: I am not in the pay of anyone, Magistrate. 

CP: You are entirely disinterested? You serve only the Cult? 

HS: I serve only the truth. 

CP: Not the Empire? 

HS: I am a citizen of the Empire, and I have obeyed its laws and ordinances all my life. 

CP: That remains to be seen. This future you claim to have seen in the Scrolls, Scrollkeeper, is it already fixed? 

HS: It is my belief that you, along with every single learned member of the Council here, have been apprised of the nature of the Scrolls and what is written therein. I feel sure you have already read the relevant portions of _Lost Histories of Tamriel_ and other similar reference texts. I merely say what I am sure all of you already know, when I tell you that the Scrolls are in flux until one of the prophecies therein have been enacted, whereupon the events described in the Scroll will acquire fixity, and become unequivocal truth. 

CP: You presume correctly when you say we have all read the relevant portions. Do you mean to say that a Hero has already enacted the prophecy concerning the abrupt and rapid downfall of the Empire? 

HS: No. It has not yet happened in its entirety.

CP: So the future can still be changed? 

HS: Yes.   
  
CP: Easily? 

HS: No. With great difficulty and no surety of success. 

CP: But it _can_ be.

HS: Yes.

CP: Then why do you insist that the Empire is doomed, and so quickly? 

HS: To answer you, I must explain that I consider your use of the term “abrupt and rapid downfall” to be fundamentally inaccurate. The momentum of history contains tremendous inertia. To change the course of events, this momentum must be met with something possessing similar inertia. A great many people in the last few hundred years have all done things great and small to bring events to the impending cusp. To steer the Empire away from this cusp, we must either precipitate events that are of a sufficiently remarkable nature, or we must allow an enormous amount of time for change. Do you understand? 

CP: I think I do. The Empire need not fall, and the Septim Dynasty need not end, if sufficiently remarkable events are made to occur. 

HS: That is correct. 

CP: Made to occur by a dissident group of rebellious Moth Priests? 

HS: No, Magistrate. We are far too few, and we are largely irrelevant in any event. 

CP: You are sure? 

HS: Consider that we would have to work against the accumulated momentum of not just events in the Third Era, but of the Second. Consider that the Empire is a sprawling immensity, spanning the entire continent and some lands beyond the horizon. Consider that for long years, forces unknowable have been hard at work unraveling the very threads of our existence. A mythic dawn is approaching, and my friends and I can hardly expect to obtain the power to forestall this eventuality. 

CP: I see. So you assure us that you and your followers have no illegal agenda? 

HS: We do not. 

CP: And you contend that you cannot avert what you claim is coming, no matter what you do. 

HS: You are unfortunately correct. It is not in my power to prevent the ruin of the Empire, or to save the Septim Dynasty. It is not in the power of any of my friends, either. Please release them and see that they do not come to harm. They are blameless. 

CP: Scrollkeeper Harius Seldonius, I charge you now to answer truthfully. Attend now, with care, for we want a considered answer. What is the purpose of your group’s dissemination of this prophecy of yours? What are all of you seeking to accomplish with your various actions, your attempts to infiltrate the Guilds, your strange and suspicious activities in various locations throughout the countryside, your unsanctioned intrusions into the dread realm of Oblivion? 

HS: The explanation is simple. The coming doom is not an isolated event. It is the product of an intricate drama that was begun centuries ago and is approaching culmination. In truth, I suspect that the root of it lies much, much further back than any of us can imagine. Whatever the case, the collapse of the Empire and the end of the dynasty are self-evidently inevitable. 

_[The furious outrage takes long minutes for the gavel of High Chancellor Ocato to finally quell.]_

CP: Scrollkeeper Harius Seldonius, your claims about the future strain the bounds of credibility to breaking point. You have, yourself, described the Empire as a “stable and prosperous polity”. Around you, in this very chamber, you see the evidence of Imperial diversity and the strength of union under the Imperial aegis. You see Councilors of High Rock, Morrowind, Valenwood, Orsinium, Skyrim, Elsweyr, Hammerfell. You see even a representative of the Summerset Isles, with which we currently enjoy the very friendliest of diplomatic relations. Consider, Seldonius, that apart from the aberration of your trial here today, this very Chamber is where the day to day affairs of the Empire are conducted in excellent order; matters of law, of finance, of trade, of administration, of culture. Consider too, Seldonius, the proud men and women of the Legion represented here by our redoubtable military leaders. The might and power of the Empire of Tamriel is manifest. The Emperor Uriel Septim has ruled wisely and well, and his sons are models of fraternal harmony. Each one is himself fit to be an Emperor cast in the finest mold. And the Blades are ever vigilant; there is no treachery among the sons of Uriel Septim. None of them is plotting against the others, or their Imperial father. This is verified truth. Do you realize, Harius Seldonius – are you at all conscious of how you are a citizen of the greatest Empire this world has ever known, that has stood for untold generations, that surpasses the glorious legacies of St. Alessia and Reman Cyrodiil, that was established by the man Tiber Septim who became the god Talos, that has behind it the benediction and love of the Eight and One? 

HS: I am aware of both the present status and the past history of the Empire. Without disrespect, I must claim a far better knowledge of it than any in this room. 

CP: And yet you predict its ruin? 

HS: It is a pronouncement of the Elder Scrolls. I pass no moral judgments. Personally, I regret the prospect. The wisdom and benevolence of Uriel VII is beyond contestation. Neither do I cast aspersions on any of his three sons. I have never professed any great love of the Empire, but neither do I feel antipathy towards it. On the contrary, it is my contention that after the Empire falls, the state of anarchy which would follow is a nightmare straight out of Vaermina’s Quagmire. 

CP: It is not obvious to you, then, that the Empire has reached an unprecedented zenith? 

HS: The appearance of strength is all about us. It would seem to last forever. However, Magistrate… High Chancellor… the rotten tree trunk, until the very moment the storm winds blast it to pieces, has all the appearance of might it ever had. The wind is whistling through the branches even now. Listen with the ears of the Ancestor Moths, and you will hear the creaking. 

CP: _(uncertainly)_ We are… we are not here to… 

HS: The Empire will vanish, and all its good with it. The man who became a god will be toppled, and the order he has imposed upon the world will dissipate. There will be too many wars, large or small, to count. Suffering and misery will be unceasing. Trade will dwindle, populations will decline, joy will fade away from memory. The Aedra will remain quiet and dormant, and bestow their blessings no longer upon their worshippers. They will, in time, die. Truth will be denigrated until it has neither power nor meaning. Beauty will be counted as ugliness, and wickedness counted as virtue; coarseness as refinement, compassion as weakness. Children will be torn from the arms of their parents and made to live on scraps. The poor and sick will be compelled to labor until they die to make others wealthy. The very air shall become a noxious fume. Only supremacy shall reign, and those who seek dominion will be the very worst of us. Malice will rule our affairs. The gyre will widen, things will fall apart, the center will not hold. The Towers of Nirn will decay, crumble and fall. And so matters will remain. Imagine the future: a boot grinding a weeping face into the mud, forever. 

_[The silence is vast.]_

CP: … for… forever? 

HS: Yes. 

_[The silence continues.]_

HS: … unless… 

CP: Unless? 

HS: Unless we close shut the marbled jaws of Oblivion. 

CP: What? 

HS: We must fight this fate. We must forge a different destiny. 

CP: You… you contradict yourself. You have been telling us that you cannot prevent the ruin of the Empire or, or the end of the Septims… 

HS: I do not say that we can prevent the end of the dynasty. But it is not yet too late to avert the utter ruin of all Tamriel. A Hero is already at work unraveling the tapestry – my lords and ladies, I trust there will be no confusion about the term “Hero”? Earlier, the wise Magistrate asked me… 

CP: Yes, yes I did. We understand the term. Go on. 

HS: This Hero has already enacted the end of the Septims. Knowing this avails us nothing – it cannot be prevented. It will happen within the next four or five years. It is written in the Scrolls. But my friends and I are working to bring something else about. We can reduce the duration and the suffering of the interregnum – you, High Chancellor Ocato, will have to be Potentate – if we are allowed to act _now._ Whatever we can do to deflect this fate… just a little… just a _little…_ It cannot be much, but we can remove decades of suffering from the future, and perhaps… perhaps the Empire can even survive in some form. 

CP: How do you propose this can be done? 

HS: We must enact the myth of the Missing God. We must allow a new Shezzarine to coalesce and come into being. This person will be a Champion, the Champion of Cyrodiil, and for a while this will be the single most famous and infamous person in the entire world… but then the Champion must be forgotten. The Champion must become, finally, nameless. We will preserve stories about the Champion in archives of our own that are their own truths, but they shall all be mutually contradictory and of an unverifiable nature. These stories will be passed on through the generations, until all of them are true and none of them are. It is ever so with a Shezzarine, like Pelinal Whitestrake or Ysmir Wulfharth. 

CP: This… this Shezzarine… 

HS: A Prisoner. It must always be one. This Prisoner will become our Champion, a pivotal figure, but _not a savior._ You must be clear on this. The Champion of Cyrodiil is not the one who will save it. Or save all of Mundus, or save us. The Champion will only make it _possible_ for someone of Dragon Blood to do what can be done, just as the monstrous Whitestrake made possible the gentle St. Alessia. And in turn, my friends and I seek to make the _Champion_ possible. 

CP: Who is the savior? You speak of Dragon Blood. But the Dragonborn Emperors are… they’re the Septims. No one else. But if they’re to die… who, then? 

HS: We cannot say. The moths do. The whispered susurrations of their wings tell me of someone whose fate it always is to die, in story after story, but I do not yet see who it is. It may well be that if I were to know, the skein of fate will be unraveled. It may also be that we must not rely on _one_ savior; as I have said before, the momentum of history is massive and majestic, but ultimately every single life is creating its own momentum. My friends and I, we who have been smothered by the moths, each of us has heard something different, different parts of the prophecies. Let us do what we need to, what the moths say we must do, so that this Champion can come into the world at the appointed time. 

CP: And what of the Emperor! His sons! Can they not be saved? Could we not do something for them? 

HS: … the time of the Septim Emperors is over. This is unequivocal. The Scrolls have spoken. It has been enacted, by someone. By a Hero. I am sorry. 

CP: _(mumbled)_ Can nothing be done for them? 

HS: But in the future… in a time neither you nor I, Magistrate, will live to see… I hear the whisper of a storm wind from the north. This whisper will build into a mighty shout. Something approaches… something whose time has not yet come. I am not certain. It will have the chance to become a thing of grace and glory. Only a chance. I do not know its shape… I see it walking. It is walking a narrow, golden path. It is a nascent strand of possibility floating in the void, but its time may never come unless we act now, Magistrate, Chancellor, Councilors. Let my friends and I do what we deem needful, what the moths tell us to do. And for the future, we may yet preserve a glimmer of hope. 

CP: Hope… 

HS: Yes. We may yet hope. I throw myself on the mercy of the Elder Council, and submit myself to your judgment. 

CP: High Chancellor, I have no further questions. May the Nine save us all. 

_[High Chancellor Ocato declares the trial adjourned.]_


End file.
